CUPID
by royalpinkdogs
Summary: Abby Kirk receives a Valentine's Day gift from an impossible secret admirer. Based on ROGUEANGEL'S works. To see the Heart Nebula: APOD  dot  NASA  dot  Gov  slash  APOD  slash  ap090214 dot html


_This little Valentine's Day story is meant to go along with the marvelous collection of stories known as "FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND QUALITY TIME" by RogueAngel. I highly recommend your reading of this group, which is the sequel to RogueAngel's "CONSEQUENCES" and a companion set to "PARENTHOOD—THE SEXLESS FRONTIER". Marissa and Abby are the inventions of RogueAngel, while Jim, the _ENTERPRISE, _Chekov, Uhura, Bones, Rand and Chapel are the timeless creations of the great Gene Roddenberry. I am a devoted life-long fan, and have written this only for enjoyment_

_HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!_

CUPID

Little Abby Kirk had been born aboard the _Enterprise _just a few days before Valentine's Day, in the year after the Battle of Vulcan and the _Narada _incident. She was therefore unaware of the importance of that date to friends and lovers. Her world that first February 14 was restricted to the milk from her mother's breast, the strong arms of her father as he sang a sleepy time song and the soft warm blankets lovingly wrapped around her.

Abby's second Valentine's Day came just a few weeks before her mother would speak at the annual conference on Stratnon, better known as Planet U, so little time was spared for treating a toddler to the candy and flowers, hearts and frilly red or pink dresses that might be showered on an adored baby in other situations. Marissa, Abby's mother, was busy preparing her files and notes for the panels, the Q&A sessions and the speeches she would be expected to give and gave no thought to the ancient Terran custom of exchanging anonymous love notes with friends or suggestive, alluring messages to partners. And Abby's father, Jim, was very busy with two warring planets as he tried to broker a peace treaty or settlement between them before they destroyed their own little corner of the galaxy. He was oblivious to the upcoming date in regard for doing something nice for Marissa either, since his own hideous childhood had not been one of fun, secret messages from girls with crushes or shy, embarrassed Valentine cards to the cutest chick in the class.

So when the chime rang in the Captain's cabin, and when the door was opened a pink and red package was discovered on the floor, with no apparent delivery means in sight, Jim was confused. Lifting the transparent film wrapped basket, he examined the big red, pink and white bow, and turned the red cut-out heart over to read "To Abby, From Cupid."

Walking into the kitchen area of their quarters, Jim held the basket out toward Marissa, "Look! This package was left at the door to Abby! The tag says it's from "Cupid"—do you have any idea what this is?"

"Oh, it's beautiful! That gorgeous bow! And it's huge! How did it get here?"

"I dunno—the chime rang, I opened the door and this was on the floor. Do you think I should get it checked out before we open it? This conflict between the Darabians and Coutanns has me seeing enemies around every corner, but I'm not sure we ought to just tear into this thing until we find out what it is."

"Well, it's obviously a Valentine's Day gift to Abby. I'd bet on Chekov. He'd do something cute like that. "

"No, he's on duty right now"

"Well, he had a friend deliver it then."

" Lemme get a tricorder and give it a once over."

"Jim, don't be silly. Look, you can see through the pink film covering it there's a stuffed animal and some flowers, plus what looks like some candies. All of the things are baby sized, and perfect for a little girl. Some crewmember wanted to do something sweet for Abby and didn't want it to look like they were kissing your ass."

By this time Abby was reaching for the pretty red, pink and white thing her daddy was turning around in his hands, wanting her chance to see. When she didn't have the new thing given to her immediately, she let her frustration be known with a loud squawk and "DA DA DA DA DA DA"

"No baby, daddy can't give you the thing. We're not sure what it is. Here, play with your spoons," as Marissa tried to distract the gregarious child with some known and safe toys.

But Abby's protests only grew louder as Jim carried the basket into his office, placing it on the desk as he called up the security scans for the corridor outside his quarters. Ordering the monitor to playback the last ten minutes of traffic in the hallway allowed him to see Uhura leave her quarters across the hall, turning immediately left toward the turbolift, but showing nothing in front of his door. Then suddenly, a fuzzy flurry of white and gold flew in front of the monitor obscuring a clear view, with a hint of rosy pink hue somewhere in the midst of the vision. When the image cleared again, the basket was there.

"Whoa. Mariss—come here! This is too weird!"

When Marissa joined Jim in their shared office, with Abby in her arms, Jim ordered the monitor to replay the scans he had just watched. Just as before, Uhura appeared and walked out of the range of the scan, then the blur of white feathery images, golden shimmers and rosy pink softness flashed across the display, blotting out all else, but revealing the basket in place once the view cleared.

"Damn. That is weird. Maybe this is something security ought to see. Strange apparitions showing up on corridor scans and things materializing where they had been is not normal, even on this starship. In the transporter room, yes, but not on our hall," she quipped, with a cute smile.

"Hey, this ship is no weirder than any other. Don't you be saying bad things about the _Enterprise!" _he huffed.

"Aye Aye, Sir," as she stood at attention. But her formal stance was ruined by the baby in her arms leaning way over and almost falling as she reached out for her daddy. Jim stood, taking Abby from Marissa and tossing the baby in the air. She giggled and chuckled as he caught her before he did it again and again. Finally, he held her tightly for a moment, then handed her back to her mother.

"I'd better go. I'll take this thing with me and let Security scan it before we open it up. I know I'm being paranoid, but that scan is damned crazy," as he picked up the basket and kissed Marissa before he sped out the door.

By the end of Alpha shift, the Security team had checked out everything in the basket, had run the corridor scan through every filter and evaluation device they had, and had come to the conclusion that the things in the basket were safe, were of Terran materials, the cell structure of the flowers was identical to Earth-bound carnations and roses, the chemical composition of the chocolate hearts was the same theobromine, cocoa butter and sucrose found in the standard chocolates made by Godiva, the fuzzy fabric cover of the bear was neither toxic nor allergenic, and he was stuffed with petroleum by-product foam 'beanies'.

There was still no explanation of what that image of white, gold and pink had been on the corridor scan nor had any intruder alarms been sounded, or energy surges been detected around the ship at the same moment.

Jim had gently quizzed Chekov, Uhura, Bones, Rand and Chapel since all of them doted on Abby, but none of them admitted or even acted guilty.

By the time Jim returned to his quarters, the basket looked slightly less elegant than it had when it first appeared. The transparent film was gone, and the big bows were stuffed in among the other things. But Abby didn't care. She dived into the red and pink tissue, pulling out the stuffed white bear wearing a big red bow. On seeing this new pal her comment of "Ya ya ya ya" obviously meant she was thrilled.

Marissa opened the little golden box and broke off a very small piece of the chocolate. Abby took it into her mouth and smacked her lips on this new treat. She reached out for more, but Jim stopped her hands, saying, "I was allergic to this stuff when I was little. Let's not give her anymore and see what this little bit does first."

Marissa managed to distract her with a little red heart-shaped lollipop on a circular handle. This proved to be just as nice, and holding the white bear in one chubby little arm while the sucker was waved around with the other made Abby giggle and declare her delight with another chorus of "Ya ya ya ya ya"

When Marissa showed the little bouquet of red roses and pink carnations to Abby, the expression of joy changed to "Gi gi gi gi" and a big smile. Marissa showed Abby how to sniff the fragrance of the flowers, and got "Ayh ayh ayh" as the comment. And when Jim tied the big red and pink bows onto Abby's chubby little ankles, she responded with happy clapping of sticky little hands.

Eventually, all the goodies had been investigated and tested, and Abby was ready for bed time. Holding the new Valentine bear, that would from then on carry the day's name as his name, she went to sleep easily. Jim stood with an arm over Marissa's shoulders for just a bit, as they watched their daughter sleep, then turned back toward the living area. As they cleaned up the scattered remnants of Abby's Valentine basket, Marissa asked, "Do you think it was Cupid? Really?"

"When I asked Chekov about his part in this, he denied it. But then he mentioned that we're not that far away from Nebula IC 1805, which was named the "Heart Nebula" when they photographed it from Earth a couple hundred years ago. Might be something there-Who knows?"

"Wow. Abby got her first Valentine from Cupid himself. You know what that means, don't ya, Jim. This sets the standard pretty high. No mere mortal boy is gonna match this. And you're gonna be fighting off the boys who come calling with photon torpedoes! We've got ourselves a little girlfriend of a god!"

_Take a look at this photo released by NASA of the Heart Nebula, and the explanation of its ironic location. (be sure to delete the spaces following the slashes)_

_http:/ .gov/ apod/ _


End file.
